Coach Tony Sparano Friday blamed his team’s propensity to pass rather than run in the past two games on the disguised coverages third-string quarterback Tyler Thigpen is seeing from opposing defenses and said his team needs to go back to basics to re-establish its running game.

“We’ve probably got to go back and start to identify the staple runs,” Sparano said at his morning-after press conference less than 12 hours after the Dolphins suffered a 16-0 loss to Chicago, the first time the team had been shut out at home in exactly nine years.

Sparano said offensive coordinator Dan Henning gave Thigpen the option to execute either a run or pass in numerous situations, and that when he got to the line of scrimmage he opted for the pass.

“It’s not that (we’re) calling pass plays,” he said. “I’ll give you an example: On the fifth series of the game we called four run/pass (options) in a row. On one of those four they baited Tyler a little bit and he threw the ball down the sideline and got it to Brian Hartline for 25 yards. In those situations we’ve got to have more handoffs and less worrying about the chunk play just because the coverage dictates the chunk play.

“We had a couple of situations where the coverage dictated those. We had a couple of throws to Brandon (Marshall) early in the game that were those kinds of plays as well. So when the coverage tells you to throw the ball you’re obviously not handing it off.”

Sparano went on to say the running backs have rushed for only 90 yards on 33 carries in the last two games; on Thursday, Ronnie Brown had three carries for 10 yards and Ricky Williams three carries for 1 yard. “That’s not good enough,” he said.

Sparano had no update on injuries, noting players were just getting to the team’s training facility. He did add that if it turns out center Joe Berger is going to be out awhile, he and General Manager Jeff Ireland may have to seek an alternative at center. Cory Procter suffered what appeared to be a serious knee injury early in the game and right guard Richie Incognito, who played center in high school, was forced to fill in.

He said tackle Jake Long, who played with a shoulder injury, was pulled late in the game out of concern for his welfare and there will be constant communication among himself, Long and the doctors regarding his status.

Sparano was also understandably critical of his defense, particularly in its inability to keep Jay Cutler in the pocket and its lack of success on third-down plays. Chicago converted 10-of-18 third downs, while Miami was just 1-of-11.